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• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B01—PHYSICAL OR CHEMICAL PROCESSES OR APPARATUS IN GENERAL
  • B01J—CHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROCESSES, e.g. CATALYSIS OR COLLOID CHEMISTRY; THEIR RELEVANT APPARATUS
  • B01J31/00—Catalysts comprising hydrides, coordination complexes or organic compounds
  • B01J31/16—Catalysts comprising hydrides, coordination complexes or organic compounds containing coordination complexes
  • B01J31/24—Phosphines, i.e. phosphorus bonded to only carbon atoms, or to both carbon and hydrogen atoms, including e.g. sp2-hybridised phosphorus compounds such as phosphabenzene, phosphole or anionic phospholide ligands
  • B01J31/2404—Cyclic ligands, including e.g. non-condensed polycyclic ligands, the phosphine-P atom being a ring member or a substituent on the ring
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B01—PHYSICAL OR CHEMICAL PROCESSES OR APPARATUS IN GENERAL
  • B01J—CHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROCESSES, e.g. CATALYSIS OR COLLOID CHEMISTRY; THEIR RELEVANT APPARATUS
  • B01J31/00—Catalysts comprising hydrides, coordination complexes or organic compounds
  • B01J31/16—Catalysts comprising hydrides, coordination complexes or organic compounds containing coordination complexes
  • B01J31/20—Carbonyls
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B01—PHYSICAL OR CHEMICAL PROCESSES OR APPARATUS IN GENERAL
  • B01J—CHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROCESSES, e.g. CATALYSIS OR COLLOID CHEMISTRY; THEIR RELEVANT APPARATUS
  • B01J31/00—Catalysts comprising hydrides, coordination complexes or organic compounds
  • B01J31/16—Catalysts comprising hydrides, coordination complexes or organic compounds containing coordination complexes
  • B01J31/24—Phosphines, i.e. phosphorus bonded to only carbon atoms, or to both carbon and hydrogen atoms, including e.g. sp2-hybridised phosphorus compounds such as phosphabenzene, phosphole or anionic phospholide ligands
• • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
  • C07—ORGANIC CHEMISTRY
  • C07C—ACYCLIC OR CARBOCYCLIC COMPOUNDS
  • C07C29/00—Preparation of compounds having hydroxy or O-metal groups bound to a carbon atom not belonging to a six-membered aromatic ring
  • C07C29/132—Preparation of compounds having hydroxy or O-metal groups bound to a carbon atom not belonging to a six-membered aromatic ring by reduction of an oxygen containing functional group
  • C07C29/136—Preparation of compounds having hydroxy or O-metal groups bound to a carbon atom not belonging to a six-membered aromatic ring by reduction of an oxygen containing functional group of >C=O containing groups, e.g. —COOH
  • C07C29/14—Preparation of compounds having hydroxy or O-metal groups bound to a carbon atom not belonging to a six-membered aromatic ring by reduction of an oxygen containing functional group of >C=O containing groups, e.g. —COOH of a —CHO group
  • C07C29/141—Preparation of compounds having hydroxy or O-metal groups bound to a carbon atom not belonging to a six-membered aromatic ring by reduction of an oxygen containing functional group of >C=O containing groups, e.g. —COOH of a —CHO group with hydrogen or hydrogen-containing gases
• • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
  • C07—ORGANIC CHEMISTRY
  • C07C—ACYCLIC OR CARBOCYCLIC COMPOUNDS
  • C07C29/00—Preparation of compounds having hydroxy or O-metal groups bound to a carbon atom not belonging to a six-membered aromatic ring
  • C07C29/36—Preparation of compounds having hydroxy or O-metal groups bound to a carbon atom not belonging to a six-membered aromatic ring increasing the number of carbon atoms by reactions with formation of hydroxy groups, which may occur via intermediates being derivatives of hydroxy, e.g. O-metal
  • C07C29/38—Preparation of compounds having hydroxy or O-metal groups bound to a carbon atom not belonging to a six-membered aromatic ring increasing the number of carbon atoms by reactions with formation of hydroxy groups, which may occur via intermediates being derivatives of hydroxy, e.g. O-metal by reaction with aldehydes or ketones
• • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
  • C07—ORGANIC CHEMISTRY
  • C07C—ACYCLIC OR CARBOCYCLIC COMPOUNDS
  • C07C45/00—Preparation of compounds having >C = O groups bound only to carbon or hydrogen atoms; Preparation of chelates of such compounds
  • C07C45/61—Preparation of compounds having >C = O groups bound only to carbon or hydrogen atoms; Preparation of chelates of such compounds by reactions not involving the formation of >C = O groups
  • C07C45/67—Preparation of compounds having >C = O groups bound only to carbon or hydrogen atoms; Preparation of chelates of such compounds by reactions not involving the formation of >C = O groups by isomerisation; by change of size of the carbon skeleton
  • C07C45/68—Preparation of compounds having >C = O groups bound only to carbon or hydrogen atoms; Preparation of chelates of such compounds by reactions not involving the formation of >C = O groups by isomerisation; by change of size of the carbon skeleton by increase in the number of carbon atoms
• • C—CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY
  • C07—ORGANIC CHEMISTRY
  • C07C—ACYCLIC OR CARBOCYCLIC COMPOUNDS
  • C07C45/00—Preparation of compounds having >C = O groups bound only to carbon or hydrogen atoms; Preparation of chelates of such compounds
  • C07C45/78—Separation; Purification; Stabilisation; Use of additives
  • C07C45/80—Separation; Purification; Stabilisation; Use of additives by liquid-liquid treatment
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B01—PHYSICAL OR CHEMICAL PROCESSES OR APPARATUS IN GENERAL
  • B01J—CHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROCESSES, e.g. CATALYSIS OR COLLOID CHEMISTRY; THEIR RELEVANT APPARATUS
  • B01J2231/00—Catalytic reactions performed with catalysts classified in B01J31/00
  • B01J2231/30—Addition reactions at carbon centres, i.e. to either C-C or C-X multiple bonds
  • B01J2231/34—Other additions, e.g. Monsanto-type carbonylations, addition to 1,2-C=X or 1,2-C-X triplebonds, additions to 1,4-C=C-C=X or 1,4-C=-C-X triple bonds with X, e.g. O, S, NH/N
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B01—PHYSICAL OR CHEMICAL PROCESSES OR APPARATUS IN GENERAL
  • B01J—CHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROCESSES, e.g. CATALYSIS OR COLLOID CHEMISTRY; THEIR RELEVANT APPARATUS
  • B01J2531/00—Additional information regarding catalytic systems classified in B01J31/00
  • B01J2531/80—Complexes comprising metals of Group VIII as the central metal
  • B01J2531/82—Metals of the platinum group
  • B01J2531/822—Rhodium
• • Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
  • Y02—TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
  • Y02P—CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES IN THE PRODUCTION OR PROCESSING OF GOODS
  • Y02P20/00—Technologies relating to chemical industry
  • Y02P20/50—Improvements relating to the production of bulk chemicals
  • Y02P20/52—Improvements relating to the production of bulk chemicals using catalysts, e.g. selective catalysts
• • Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
  • Y02—TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
  • Y02P—CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES IN THE PRODUCTION OR PROCESSING OF GOODS
  • Y02P20/00—Technologies relating to chemical industry
  • Y02P20/50—Improvements relating to the production of bulk chemicals
  • Y02P20/582—Recycling of unreacted starting or intermediate materials

Definitions

• This invention concerns the production of glycol aldehyde, and in particular a method of preparing glycol aldehyde by reaction of formaldehyde, carbon monoxide and hydrogen in the presence of a rhodium catalyst.
• Glycol aldehyde is a known intermediate, and can, for example, be converted to ethylene glycol by hydrogenation.
• Glycol aldehyde has been prepared by hydroformylation of formaldehyde in the presence of cobalt catalysts as described in United States Patent No. 3,920,753, but the yields reported there do not exceed 50%, based on formaldehyde charged.
• glycol aldehyde can be produced by the reaction of formaldehyde, hydrogen and carbon mdnoxide in the presence of a rhodium catalyst.
• the rhodium catalyst is of the type suitable for homogeneous hydroformylation reactions and the reaction is appropriately carried out in a suitable solvent.
• Phosphines or other complexing ligands which have the effect of stabilizing the catalyst against reduction by the formaldehyde are preferably present.
• Polar solvents which favor glycol aldehyde production such as amide solvents, are suitable as liquid reaction media. It has further been found that the presence of the glycol aldehyde product has an inhibiting effect upon the reaction, thereby making it advantageous to conduct the process so as to limit the conversion, or to remove product from the reaction mixture.
• rhodium catalysts as described herein permits the hydroformylation of formaldehyde to be carried out with good reaction rates and high selectivity to glycol aldehyde.
• reaction catalyzed by rhodium catalyst in the present process can be represented: It will be recognized that the illustrated reactants are capable of reactions other than that illustrated, and that, depending upon conditions and catalyst, there will be concomitant production of other product in variable amounts, particularly of methanol. However, the conditions in the present process can be regulated to give high selectivity to the desired glycol aldehyde.
• the present process is carried out under general conditions suitable for hydroformylation with rhodium catalyst.
• the reaction is effected at elevated temperature and elevated pressure of carbon monoxide and hydrogen.
• relatively mild temperature and pressure conditions are suitable.
• the temperature and pressure will generally be sufficiently high to give substantial reaction rates with the catalyst employed, and will usually be at least 50°C and 500 psi, (35.1 kg./cm.2) and may range up to 200 o C. or higher and 5000psi, ( 351 kg./cm.2).
• glycol aldehyde production predominate over methanol production, and preferably to have very high selectivity to glycol aldehyde, such as over 90 or over 95, based on the mol ratio of glycol aldehyde to methanol.
• the methanol produced in the reaction is a useful product. Nevertheless, its production in the present process is ordinarily undesirable and to be minimized as it is generally less valuable than the starting formaldehyde. Aside from other potential uses, the methanol produced can, if desired, be converted to formaldehyde for recycle.
• the carbon monoxide also contributes to stability of catalyst with carbonyl ligand.
• the .carbon monoxide and hydrogen may conveniently be used in about 1:1 ratio, on a mole basis, as available in synthesis gas, but can also be employed in widely varying ranges, such as CO:H 2 mole ratios varying from about 5:95 to 95:5. Good yields are obtainable at CO:H 2 ratios as high as 4:1. Large excesses of hydrogen tend to promote the production of methanol, and there is often advantage in having at least en equimolar amount of carbon monoxide, particularly if temperature or other conditions are such as to present a need to repress methanol production.
• Rhodium catalyst systems as utilized in the present invention are well known in homogeneous catalysis chemistry, particularly as catalysts for various carboxylation reactions.
• the rhodium component of such catalysts is considered to be present in the form of a coordination compound.
• such coordination compounds can include carbon monoxide ligands, hydride ligands, halide or pseudohalide components, or various other ligands.
• the term "coordination compound” as used herein means a compound or complex formed by a combination of one or more electronically rich molecules or atoms capable of independent existence with one or more electronically poor molecules each of which may also be capable of independent existence.
• the rhodium may be complexed with from 3 to 6 or so ligands, and such ligands can and preferably do include halide or pseudohalide ligands, particularly chloride, bromide or iodide.
• the rhodium can be in form usually considered as neutral or essentially non-valent in common catalyst systems, or in cationic form as described in Tinker and Morris U.S. Patent No. 4,052,461.
• the catalyst can be supplied to the reaction medium in active form, or in the form of various catalyst precursors and the catalyst may further undergo changes in the course of the reaction, or from the effect of the reaction conditions.
• carbon monoxide may replace one or more other ligands upon subjection to carbon monoxide pressures, and further that the carbon monoxide can contribute to stability of the active form of catalyst.
• a halide or pseudohalide component as well as the rhodium component, particularly chlorine, bromine or iodine, as such components contribute to activity, and also affect selectivity to,the desired glycol aldehyde, although the chloride ion is considerably better for selectivity than the other halides.
• a particular class of rhodium catalysts or precursors which are generally suitable can be represented: where X is Cl, Br, I or F, and PL 3 is a phosphine ligand in which each L is an organo group, such as aromatic or alkyl groups, with or without non-interfering substituents.
• aryl ligands are generally preferred, and such groups may be hydrocarbyl groups with only alkyl or similar substituents, e.g. tolyl, ethylphenyl, etc. although other substituents can be present in the phenyl ring, e.g. fluoro, dimethyl- amino etc.
• One or more alkyl groups, e.g. methyl, ethyl, butyl, etc. can be present on the phosphorus, although activity is generally poorer than with phenyl and similar groups.
• the rhodium component of the catalyst system employed in the present invention may be provided by introducing into the reaction zone a coordination compound of rhodium, or the rhodium component may be introduced without coordinating ligands.
• a coordination compound of rhodium or the rhodium component may be introduced without coordinating ligands.
• the materials which may be charged are rhodium metal, rhodium salts or oxides, organo rhodium compounds, coordination compounds and the like.
• Specific examples of materials capable of providing the rhodium constituent may be taken from the following non-limiting list of materials:
• the catalyst can be represented by formula, it will be recognized that the exact active form is not necessarily known, and various active forms may be present and change during the course of the reaction. Whether the rhodium is provided in an apparently active form, or as a precursor compound, it is to be understood that the invention includes carrying out the process in the presence of rhodium in active catalyst form.
• pseudohalides can generally be employed in place of halides, although with some variation in results. In some instances pseudohalides will be better than the poorer members of the halides.
• Pseudohalides are a recognized class of materials having halide like properties in forming co-ordinate compounds and the like, including such members as NCS - , NCO - , CN-, NCSe - , N 3 - ,
• a rhodium catalyst is used which is effective for hydroformylation of formaldehyde to glycol aldehyde.
• the catalysts will be those useful for hydroformylations and those skilled in the art can readily determine those particularly suitable for the present reaction.
• phosphine ligands are more suitable than most other complexing ligands employed in the art for stabilizing and similar purposes. Even so, the phosphines are not essential to operability, as the desired reaction will take place in the absence of phosphines, with such groups as halogen, carbonyl etc. serving as coordinating ligands.
• the coordinating ligands such as phosphines
• phosphines can if desired be present in excess of the amounts required for coordination in the catalyst formula as ordinarily represented, e.g. an RhCl(CO) (P(C6H5)3)2catalyst may be employed with additional triphenylphosphine present, such as up to 30 or 40 parts on a mole basis per part rhodium.
• RhCl(CO) P(C6H5)32catalyst
• triphenylphosphine such as up to 30 or 40 parts on a mole basis per part rhodium.
• large excesses tend to lower activity of the catalyst for the desired reaction, so ordinarily an excess greater than-10 parts of the phosphine will not be employed.
• the concentration of the catalyst can be varied widely, but ordinarily sufficient amounts will be employed to obtain desired rates and acceptable selectivity to glycol aldehyde. Ranges from about 10 -6 to about 10 -1 moles/ liter of rhodium, or even up to 1 mole/liter, are operative, but preferred ranges are about 1 x 10 -3 moles/liter up to about 2 x 10 -2 moles/liter. Over fairly broad ranges, the catalyst concentration will not have a marked effect upon selectivity to glycol aldehyde although having some effect upon reaction rate. However, the catalyst concentration can be lowered to an extent sufficient to cause a decline in selectivity to glycol aldehyde, and it will generally be desirable to employ sufficient catalyst for good selectivity. The desirable amounts of catalyst may vary . with the amount of formaldehyde reactant present, but will generally be within the above ranges. While higher amounts of catalyst than specified herein can be employed, the use of such amounts is ordinarily undesirable from an economic standpoint.
• the present process involves a reaction of formaldehyde, but the formaldehyde is conveniently introduced into the reaction zone in the form of paraformaldehyde.
• the formaldehyde can be utilized in any form which will generate formaldehyde under the reaction conditions.
• Aqueous solutions of formaldehyde can be employed, but selectivity to glycol aldehyde is generally poorer than when paraformaldehyde is utilized.
• the present reaction can conveniently be effected in a polar solvent which favors the production of glycol aldehyde over that of methanol.
• Solvents having multiple bonds from carbon to other atoms, such as those with carbonyl groups, nitrile groups, etc. are among those which tend to be suitable.
• Such solvents apparently coordinate with the catalyst in some way so as to favor glycol aldehyde production.
• solvents which will react readily with the reactants or otherwise unduly interfere in the reaction are to be avoided, and the solvents will generally be relatively inert organic solvents, aside from the coordinating function.
• amides have been found to be particularly useful as solvents in the present process and to favor production of glycol aldehyde over that of methanol, the amides being characterized by the absence of free hydrogen on the'amido nitrogen atom.
• N,N-disubstituted amides i.e. amides with two organo substituents, are useful, the amides being compounds characterized by - NRR'where R and R' are organo groups, and may usually be hydrocarbyl groups.
• the substituents on the nitrogen are often alkyl groups, particularly lower alkyl groups such as methyl, ethyl, propyl, butyl, pentyl, isopentyl, hexyl etc.
• the amides are generally the amides of lower carboxylic acids, such as formic, acetic, propionic, hexanoic, etc.
• the acetamides give particularly good results, but there is some loss in selectivity with increasing chain length of the nitrogen substituents on these and other amides.
• another factor to be considered is suitability of the solvent for subsequent product separation procedures.
• the reaction of the present invention is not ordinarily carried to high conversions, and it is therefore necessary to separate glycol aldehyde from the formaldehyde reactant.
• Aqueous extractions have been found to be a suitable separation procedure, and a water immiscible reaction solvent is appropriate for such extraction procedure.
• the simple amides like dimethylformamide are water soluble but the amides tend toward water immiscibility with increasing chain length, particularly of hydrocarbon moieties, as with alkyl substituents on the nitrogen atom, and immiscibility is reached with sufficiently long chains.
• di-n-butyl- formamide and di-isopentylformamide are suitable solvents for aqueous extraction procedures and are also suitable for conducting the hydroformylation reaction.
• reaction rates tend to be slower in such solvents than in dimethylformamide etc.
• the initial rates in the first twenty or thirty minutes of the reaction are good, and in large scale operation it is likely that relatively short reaction times will be utilized with possibly less than maximum conversions in order to increase through-put and enhance selectivity to glycol aldehyde.
• reaction medium which is suitable for both the hydroformylation reaction and the subsequent production separation
• it is advantageous to use a water immiscible amide with acceptable properties for the hydroformylation reaction and the described di-n-butyl and di-isopentylformamides are examples of such water immiscible amides.
• the amides useful herein can be compounds with one or more amide groups, and can contain other functional groups so long as-such groups do not readily react or unduly interfere in the desired reaction.
• the amides can be straight chain aliphatic compounds or can be such cyclic compounds as lactams, or contain phenyl or other aromatic groups.
• such amides as N-methyl-butyrolactam and N,N-methylbenzylformamide can be utilized.
• the amides can conveniently be used as sole solvent herein, it will be recognized that they will have their desired effect if present in substantial amount even though diluted with other, preferably inert, solvents.
• Another feature of the present process is the fact that the product produced, glycol aldehyde, has an inhibiting effect upon the desired reaction. This indicates it will be advantageous to remove the product from the reaction medium at an early stage by such means as can conveniently be utilized, to take less than complete conversions in batch reactions, or to employ other procedures which may be appropriate. It appears that the aldehyde product may compete with the reactant for catalyst sites, but the applicant is not to be bound by this theory as the inhibiting effect and the procedures described herein have been discovered regardless of what the mechanism may be. Because of the inhibiting effect of the product, it is difficult with the usual concentrations and conditions to obtain conversions based on formaldehyde in batch reactions much above 60% or so. While the use of special conditions, e.g.
• reaction times of three hours have been found for many of the illustrated batch conditions, that the initial reaction rate for 20 to 30 minutes is much more rapid than that for the balance of the time. In fact, the bulk of the reaction often occurs during initial stages and the rate falls off as the concentration of glycol aldehyde increases. It follows that a higher through-put and more efficient use of reaction facilities is obtained by shortening the reaction time and taking: less than maximum conversions, such as less than 60% or so, and perhaps even less than 30% or so, based on formaldehyde charged. The use of reaction procedures in which conversions are relatively low, will make the use of efficient product separation procedures particularly advantageous.
• glycol aldehyde is difficult to distill because of its reactivity, and successive removal of formaldehyde polymer and other reaction medium components from the glycol aldehyde would be very complex. Therefore the use of a water immiscible reaction solvent, so that the glycol aldehyde can readily be extracted by an aqueous extraction as discussed herein, is particularly advantageous.
• glycol aldehyde by aqueous extraction from a water immiscible amide reaction medium containing substantial amounts of formaldehyde (or its polymers), including such reaction media in which the glycol aldehyde constitutes no more than 50 or 60%, or even no more than 30% of the glycol aldehyde and formaldehyde present.
• a sol- vent despite immiscibility with water, may in the presence of methanol dissolve some water, so it is desirable to have a fairly high degree of immiscibility in order to limit such factors and to permit an efficient extraction.
• glycol aldehyde is useful as an intermediate for production of ethylene glycol by hydrogenation.
• ethylene glycol can be produced during or subsequent to the hydroformylation, and the present process includes the production of glycol aldehyde regardless of whether it is recovered as such or converted in situ to other products. While in general it may not be desirable to hydrogenate the glycol aldehyde in the presence of formaldehyde reactant and the hydroformylation catalyst, such procedure may be appropriate under particular conditions.
• the present process involves a reaction with formaldehyde, which exhibits properties apart from acetaldehyde or aldehydes in general, in being suitable for the described reaction.
• reaction time of three hours is generally more than sufficient in batch reactions, and much shorter times would often be employed.
• those values can be converted to appropriate values, and the process operated with appropriate space velocity or other measure of reaction zone residence time to obtain the desired degree of conversion, or described maximum ratios of glycol aldehyde product to formaldehyde as discussed hereinabove.
• Ph is used as a designation for phenyl, so that, for example PPh 3 designates triphenylphosphine.
• dimethylformamide is designated by DMF, dimethylacetamide by DMA, and paraformaldehyde by PF.
• Example 2 The procedure of Example 1 was followed, but with 100 ml dimethyl acetamide as solvent. Gas chromatographic analysis showed 0.67 g. glycol aldehyde (5.6% yield) and 0.26 g methanol (4.1% yield)
• Example 2 The procedure of Example 1 was followed, but with 100 ml acetonitrile as solvent. Gas chromatographic analysis. showed 0.34 g. glycol aldehyde (2.8 % yield) ; 0 . 24 g ethylene glycol (1.9% yield); and 2.75 g methanol (43% yield)
• Example 2 The procedure of Example 1 was employed, but with 100 ml pyridine as solvent. Analysis showed 0.34 g. glycol aldehyde (2.8%); 0.12g ethylene glycol (0.8% ) and methanol (4.4%).
• Example 1 The autoclave of Example 1 was charged with 100 ml dimethyl formamide, 3 g paraformaldehyde and 0.345 g RhCl(CO)(PPh 3 ) 2 . The reaction was carried out as in Example 1. Gas chromatographic analysis showed 1.41 g glycol aldehyde (23.5%) and 0.013 g methanol (0.4%)
• Hydroformylations were carried out with RhX(CO)(PPh 3 ) 2 type catalysts in which X represents a designated anion.
• the hydroformylations were carried out at catalyst concentration of 5 x 10 -4 mole, with.3 grams paraformaldehydein 100 ml dimethylformamide at 110°C, 1200 psi gauge, H 2 -CO (1:1) for 3 hours, and resulting yields and selectivity is reported in Table 4.
• the selectivity (in all Tables herein) is the mole ratio of glycol aldehyde to methanol.
• Ethylene glycol is a useful commercial commodity and it is one of the objects of the present invention to provide a new route to ethylene glycol. It has been found that glycol aldehyde in solution can be effectively hydrogenated by homogeneous catalysis to ethylene glycol. Hydrogenation procedures and results obtained with particular catalysts at 1500 psi gauge hydrogen pressure are' set forth in Table 14.
• a copper chromite catalyst at 1500 psi gauge hydrogen and 150°C gave 91% converion inl hour but only 3.2% selectivity to ethylene glycol, while at 110°C. the conversion was 50% with 17.4% selectivity.
• glycol aldehyde can be catalytically hydrogenated to ethylene glycol. Elevated temperatures and hydrogen pressures can be utilized for such hydrogenation over various known hydrogenation catalysts, with those conditions and catalysts designed for reduction of carbonyl groups to hydroxyl groups being particularly contemplated.
• the hydrogenation is intended to reduce selectively the aldehyde group in the presence of the hydroxyl group.
• Various solvents can be used, but the aqueous solutions are particularly useful as the glycol aldehyde is readily soluble therein, and the glycol aldehyde may be recovered in aqueous solution by extraction from the reaction mixture of the hydroformylation process described herein.
• benzene and similar hydrocarbon solvents can be used, but it is desirable to use solvents in which substantial amounts of glycol aldehyde can be dissolved.

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